Librarian of Congress Fails Public Interest in Copyright Regulation

Ignores Fair Uses of DVDs and CDs

Washington, DC - The Librarian of Congress this week continued to disregard
consumers' rights and denied exemptions to copyright law related to consumers'
use of CDs and DVDs that they legally purchase.

EFF had urged the Register of Copyrights and the Librarian of Congress to grant
exemptions to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) ban on
circumventing technological locks. These digital locks, known as "digital
rights management" (DRM) systems, limit how consumers can play and view their
CDs and DVDs.

"Consumers are the real losers in today's ruling, because the Librarian of
Congress is ignoring the rights of nearly everyone who has purchased CDs and
DVDs," said EFF Staff Attorney Gwen Hinze. "We're disappointed that the
Copyright Office and the Librarian of Congress did not recognize the significant
impact that the DMCA is having on millions of consumers' ability to make
reasonable uses of digital media they've purchased."

The Copyright Office did grant exemptions for the following activities:

Decoding lists of Web pages or directories blocked by Internet filtering
software, also known as censorware. EFF Pioneer Award recipient Seth
Finkelstein was instrumental in lobbying for censorware exemptions to the DMCA
for each U.S. Copyright Office rulemaking period.

Circumventing obsolete digital rights management devices called dongles that
prevent access due to malfunction or damage. The Internet Archive requested
this exemption.

Accessing computer programs and video games distributed in obsolete formats.
The Internet Archive requested this exemption.

Accessing ebooks for which the publisher has disabled the read-aloud function
or the ability to use screen readers to render the text into a specialized
format, such as Braille for access by the blind. The American Foundation for
the Blind and five major library associations requested this exemption.

"Although the exemptions granted by the Librarian of Congress are important,
today's ruling just underscores the need for legislative reform of the DMCA to
restore the balance in U.S. Copyright law," said EFF Senior Intellectual
Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann.

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Nominate a Pioneer for EFF's 2004 Pioneer Awards

EFF established the Pioneer Awards to recognize leaders on the electronic
frontier who are extending freedom and innovation in the realm of information
technology. This is your opportunity to nominate a deserving individual or
group to receive a Pioneer Award for 2004.

The International Pioneer Awards nominations are open both to individuals and
organizations from any country.

All nominations are reviewed by a panel of judges chosen for their knowledge of
the technical, legal, and social issues associated with information
technology.

This year's award ceremony will be held in Berkeley, CA, in conjunction with the
Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference (CFP), which takes place in
mid-April.

How to Nominate Someone for a 2004 Pioneer Award:

You may send as many nominations as you wish, but please use one email per
nomination. Please submit your entries via email to pioneer@eff.org We will
accept nominations until February 1, 2004.

Simply tell us:
1. The name of the nominee,
2. the phone number or email address at which the nominee can be reached, and,
most importantly,
3. why you feel the nominee deserves the award.

You may attach supporting documentation as RTF files, Microsoft Word documents
or other common binary or plain text formats.

Nominee Criteria:

There are no specific categories for the EFF Pioneer Awards, but the following
guidelines apply:

The nominees must have contributed substantially to the health, growth,
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The contribution may be technical, social, economic, or cultural.

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Oops--We Goofed: EFF Still Seeks Media Interns, Spanish Translator

Due to a technical glitch in our web forms, EFF did not receive applications for
the intern/volunteer positions advertised in last week's EFFector. Below is the
original announcement; we encourage you to apply.

EFF seeks Media Interns to help us with media interview assignments, media
releases, media professional relationships, and mediabase and media coverage
archival. Interns must be located in the San Francisco Bay Area, and they must
be able to come into the EFF office in San Francisco at least two days per
week.

We also seek a volunteer to translate into Spanish the EFF report, "Unintended
Consequences: Five Years Under the DMCA." Ideally, the volunteer will be
familiar with both legal and technical terminology.

Brilliant Copyright
Hack
Copyright law means that college kids can't have on-demand digital music. Or
does it? At MIT, the Library Access to Music Project (LAMP) takes advantage of
existing music licenses to offer an innovative lawsuit-free service.

Or Maybe Not
Recording industry representatives now claim that Loudeye, the company that
provided music to LAMP, didn't have the right to do so.

Diebold
Deja Vu
Software code used in Sequoia Voting Systems has been leaked on the Internet,
raising concern that the systems have been compromised by criminal
intruders.

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